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Policy:Canon
Gineipaedia's canon policy is the standard that contributors must follow with regards to what is considered 'canon' (sources of information accepted as the official interpretation) on this Web site. It is not intended to suggest that other sources are inherently invalid or untrue — merely that they are inappropriate in the context of the scope and goals of this wiki. Since this wiki is still relatively new and has few contributors, many of these policies are not yet set in stone. If you find you disagree with anything, please bring it up on this article's Talk page. Summary For the purposes of this wiki, the 'primary canon' can be considered anything seen or heard in the official anime-based LOGH media, whilst official novels and manga can be considered 'secondary canon'. The reason for the distinction is that the different forms of media are often contradictory and/or contain different accounts of events, and from a practical standpoint there are two reasons for preferring the anime over the others: *Manga and Japanese novels have a much smaller audience amongst English speakers (the target demographic of this site) than anime. Given the very niche quality of the LOGH series in general outside of Japan, it makes sense to focus our efforts on the media that will interest the greatest number of people. *Related to the above, English translations of the novels and manga are much harder (if not impossible, in some cases) to obtain, and since the primary contributors to this site do not have novel-level Japanese skills, it would be difficult to maintain a wiki based on media that is only available in another language. Primary sources The following anime works are considered sources of primary canon: * *''Legend of Galactic Heroes'' (OVA) * * *''Legend of Galactic Heroes Gaiden'' (OVA) Anything seen or heard in these media is considered valid canon material and can be included in the main body of any 'in-universe' article (see below) where appropriate. Conversely, any information in the main body of an 'in-universe' article must be taken from the anime. Anything else should go in a separate manga, novel, or 'Background information' section. It may go without saying, but one exception to the above is that opening and ending titles, credits, background music, and subtitles are not considered to have actually 'occurred' within the events of the anime; they are simply for our (the viewers') benefit. Additionally, changes in animation style/quality and voice actors are not intended to be canon events and should be ignored in 'in-universe' writing. Order of precedence amongst primary sources Occasionally, there will be small conflicts even amongst primary sources; in these cases, there is an order of precedence that should be followed. Gineipaedia policy in general has a 'newest-first' standard — the most recent source trumps earlier sources. For clarity, the following list shows this order, with 1 being 'more' canon, 2 being slightly 'less' canon, and so on: #''Legend of Galactic Heroes Gaiden'' (OVA) # # #''Legend of Galactic Heroes'' (OVA) # There is also an order of precedence for different versions of each film/series: #Blu-ray #DVD — remastered (e.g., CentralAnime rips) #DVD — original (e.g., Nemesis rips) #LaserDisc So, for example, a Blu-ray LOGH Gaiden OVA would be the 'most' canon source, followed by the DVD LOGH Gaiden OVA, then the LaserDisc LOGH OVA, and so on. Secondary sources The following printed works are considered sources of secondary canon: *Legend of Galactic Heroes (original novel series) *Legend of Galactic Heroes Gaiden (original short stories) *Legend of Galactic Heroes (manga) Anything visible (written or drawn) in these media is considered valid secondary canon material, and can be included only in separate sections below the main body of the article. Do not mix information from the novels/manga in with information from the anime. Characters and other topics specific to secondary sources may have their own articles created. However, no such articles currently exist, and the format is therefore undecided. Valid non-canon sources The following sources are considered non-canon: *Production material not seen or heard in the final work (scripts, storyboards, sketches, cut or unused scenes/cels/music) *Interviews with cast or crew *'Making of' videos and documentaries *Licensed reference works *Licensed video games *Licensed sound tracks *Licensed models of vessels Information from these sources can be used in articles, but they should only appear in 'real-life' articles (such as articles about the series itself) or in the 'Apocrypha' or 'Background information' sections of 'in-universe' articles. Usage of these sources within 'in-universe' articles should be limited to interesting facts relevant to the topic at hand or to data that fills in gaps of understanding. An exception to the above is data related to vessel dimensions and crew derived from Fleet File Collections. This data may be used in the infoboxes of in-universe vessel articles. Unlike with secondary sources, in-universe subjects from non-canon sources may not have their own articles created. For example, if a character appears only in a video game but never in any other source, this character should not have his own article. However, he may be mentioned in the 'real-life' article which discusses the game itself. Invalid sources The following sources are considered invalid for all purposes: *Fan fiction of any kind (including individual fan-made ships, characters, &c.) *Fan-made video games (including mods) *Fan-made models and drawings *Fan sites or publications containing speculation or original research not confirmed by cast or crew *Reviews (whether amateur or professional) Information from these sources should not be used in any capacity in articles on Gineipaedia, nor should they be linked to or even referred to. Names Gineipaedia's policy for names of characters, vessels, &c., typically follows the guidelines laid out above; however, there are some differences. Source of names Although most subjects with officially provided names have had those names indicated in primary sources (animated works), some have not. Examples include Admiral (Julian's cat) and the Grendel (Mittermeyer's ship from MCISS). When primary sources fail to provide names for these subjects, it is acceptable to derive them from secondary and non-canon sources. This exception is made to prevent the site from being filled with dozens of confusing articles and references to 'unnamed ship' and 'unnamed character'. Precedence of romanised names The romanised spelling is given in the animated works for the names of most characters. However, the romanisation is often different, sometimes significantly, across each version or release of the media. As with other aspects of canon, Gineipaedia's romanisation policy follows the general 'newest-first' metric listed above. This means that the most recent romanisation trumps older romanisations, even when they appear to be misspelt or have other problems. This method does have its flaws, but it was chosen for consistency in the absence of official English names. It should be noted that fan-sub groups often remove or supplement the official subtitles with their own subtitles — this can be observed, for example, in CentralAnime's rips of the remastered LOGH DVDs. Although the names listed in these fan subtitles can and should be included in an article's 'Name variations' section (and redirects should be created from them), they should not be considered canon. Translation of names Since Gineipaedia is an English-language encyclopaedia, English names are preferred for most things. In the case of proper human names, this generally doesn't apply; however, there are several place names in the series that are composed of common words which must be translated into English — for example, the Kriegsministerium. As a rule, when a name appears like this in both German and Japanese, the English translation should be derived from the German. This is the case with the above example, which is rendered 'Ministry of War' in English. (The Japanese subtitles in the series had a slightly different meaning.) This is not always possible, however, due to mistakes in the original German translation or other issues. In these cases, one can only use their best judgement to arrive at what they believe to be the most accurate translation. The same judgement applies to names which are not shown translated or romanised on the screen, but only mentioned in dialogue or seen in the credits — for example, the Raigarh Starzone. Fan-sub groups and subsequent licensed LOGH video games have translated this a number of ways, but the Japanese pronunciation and spelling (confirmed from Japanese sources such as Wikipedia, or the novel if available) makes it clear that 'Raigarh' is in fact the most accurate name. See also *Manual of Style *Perspective *Images *Sections Category:Policy